When the San Fransisco Giants visited Busch Stadium at the end of May, they were the best team in baseball and treated the Cardinals as such.

They scored 23 runs over 4 games, claiming 3 wins and hung Adam Wainwright with one of his two brutal losses of the season. Many fans used that series as a mini litmus test for the Cardinals. Time hasn’t been kind proving anything but the proper outcome was achieved.

A little over a month later, and the Cardinals find themselves reeling.

2-4 in their last 6 and now 6.5 games out of first place (with Cincinnati and Pittsburgh both trailing the Cardinals by 1.5 games or less), the boys are limping badly heading into the All-Star break. The Giants, meanwhile, have been cooled. 3-7 in their last 10 and percentage points behind LA in the NL West.

Marco Gonzales takes the mound for his 2nd big league start. And he opposes Tim Lincecum, who, after watching game tape from the STL/LA series, goes for his 2nd consecutive no-hitter.

Two desperate teams looking to right their listing ship after taking on serious water.

The Cardinals playoff odds stand at 48.5% according to ESPN and that sounds just about right. A coin flip – with a dash of pessimism. We want to have faith, but thus far that faith has yielded no reward.

It’s time to see if a day off and an imported future star will do anything to get the lost 2014 season back on track.